HP 100 See the future
by Adanwen
Summary: Albus finally receives his Hogwarts-letter...but where will the Sorting Hat place him? Third prompt for the 100 Theme Challenge at dA.


**3. See the future**

With a soft swoosh a handsome brown owl landed on the Potter´s kitchen table, where breakfast was in full swing. That meant Ginny was wrestling with Lily to make her drink her milk, James threw single pieces of cornflakes at Albus, who was trying to eat his toast with bacon in dignity, while Harry tried to be as invisible as possible without invisibility cloak and to stay out of it all. He was, however, rudely interrupted in this highly difficult task by his cup of coffee being knocked over and the hot liquid splattering all over the _Daily Prophet_.

"James!"

All thoughts of neutrality forgotten, he jumped up and pointed at his eldest son with the dripping newspaper.

"How often do I have to tell you-"

But he stopped short when he saw the unfamiliar owl sitting calmly between the jam and orange juice.

"Anyone expecting mail? He asked looking around.

The children shook their heads in surprise, but Ginny wiped the milk from her face and took a closer look at the parchment tied to the bird´s leg.

"It looks official to me - hold on, it couldn´t be..."

Before she could elaborate, James had already thrown himself half over the table and quickly snatched the letter from the owl, which gave an indignant "hoot!" and disappeared through the open window.

"Ha! I knew it!"

Waving the roll in his hand like a torch, he started jumping up and down on his chair.

"Looks like you´re not a squib after all, little brother!"

Albus choked on his last bit of toast and Ginny tried to grab the letter from him. He had anticipated this though and swiftly hopped off his chair to run around the table laughing wildly, which reminded Harry oddly of Pigwidgeon when he had successfully delivered a message.

"James, what are you talking about? Hand over the letter immediately!"

Ginny tried to reason with him, but she could have just as well asked a Blast-Ended Skrewt not to explode.

Harry sighed and thought that maybe giving his son the names of two marauders at once had been a little bit too much of tempting the fates. Pointing his wand at the blur that was racing around the table he shouted:

"Accio letter!"

The parchment flew into his outstretched hand obediently and left a rather disappointed looking James.

"Daa-ad!" He accused him with bright brown puppy eyes.

Ignoring this all too familiar plead he studied the letter for a moment and then handed it over to Albus, who gave him a bewildered look.

"It´s really for you, Al. Congratulations!"

His youngest son stared at the address and then carefully unrolled the message. Everyone watched him in suspense while he grew paler and paler, seemingly reading the text three times over. After a while, when the unusual silence had become unbearable to all of them, Lily shouted:

"Wake up, Al!"

Thus addressed, Albus jumped and nearly fell from his chair. He ignored James´ snickering and said in a barely audible voice:

"It´s...I´ve been accepted at Hogwarts."

A series of very different reactions followed this silent announcement - Harry grinned proudly and leaned over the table to hug his son, Ginny gave a sort of wild war cry, Lily decided to throw the remaining milk high into the air for the festive occasion and James tried to top it all by jumping onto the table.

Ginny sobered a bit when she realised that her hair was drenched in milk and so set upon the difficult task of heaving a kicking James from the table and the not so difficult task of cleaning herself and the room with a flick of her wand.

Albus seemed to have noticed none of this uproar - his eyes were still scanning the parchment in shocked incredulity. Finally, he looked up to his father and whispered:

"Dad - It doesn´t say which house I´m in!" He looked sincerely worried, as if there had been some grave mistake and he was not supposed to go to Hogwarts at all.

Harry gave a chuckle and tried to allay his son´s ungrounded fears.

"Don´t worry, you´ll be sorted on your first day, like everyone else."

Their conversation had been quiet but somehow James had caught the word _house_, which set him off at once, announcing to the whole room:

"There´s no doubt, you´re a right Slytherin, if ever I saw one!"

"Slytherin!"

Lily giggled at the funny word, but everyone else seemed to be shocked.

Ginny recovered first.

"How can you say something like that to your brother, James? Honestly, I don´t know what has gotten into you today." She huffed and then turned to Albus, who found it scary to see how quickly her expression had changed from anger to maternal kindness.

"Don´t listen to your brother, dear. No one can predict into what house someone will be sorted in."

As this didn´t seem to comfort her son but to upset him even further, she added quickly:

"But I´m pretty sure you´ll be in Gryffindor, just like your brother!"

Albus tried a brave smile, but it didn´t convince anyone, not even himself.

"Look", Harry added, "there´s no need to be nervous right now, there´s still so much time before you´ll be leaving for Hogwarts and you shouldn´t let that question ruin all the things you can look forward too - like getting a pet for example. How about we visit Diagon Alley these days?"

"A pet? I didn´t get a pet when I got my letter!" An outraged James exclaimed before Albus could do more than to grow wide-eyed.

"I´d love that, Dad!" He finally brought out and he forgot all about hats and houses for the rest of the day.

Later on, however, as Albus was sitting on his bed, waiting for James and Lily to finish their teeth brushing, he began to ponder the question again. It may be improbable, but what would happen if he _really_ got sorted into Slytherin? He was pretty sure that his mother would send him a howler, despite her kind words.

_Well, that wouldn´t be __**that**__ bad_, he thought, _James gets a howler almost every week when he´s at Hogwarts._

But maybe it would be worse than that. Maybe his parents would even consider to take him away from school altogether and teach him at home instead! He imagined standing on platform 9 ¾ and waving goodbye to a laughing Lily, sitting in a compartment together with James and all his cousins...

"Hey Alverus, bath´s free!"

He snapped out of his fatalistic reverie and gave a tired nod at James in acknowledgement. His brother, who had been halfway down the stairs, came back up to him so quickly; he almost collided with the open bathroom door.

"Whoa, what has gotten into you, bro, you look like you just saw a grim! You´re not still thinking about that sorting business, are you?"

Being so engrossed in his worries, Albus didn´t wonder at this uncharacteristic outburst of empathy from his brother.

"No...yeah...well, I was just..."

He was reluctant to tell James about his worst fear, after all he hadn´t been very sensitive earlier.

"I just wish there was a way to find out before hand what house you´ll be in. Just to be prepared, you know?"

It sounded really lame, even to his own ears, but it was the best he could come up with, thinking about what his mother had said in the morning.

"Hmmm, interesting thought."

To his surprise, James wasn´t rolling on the floor laughing.

"You know, little brother, I think the time has come to let you in to some of my secrets; now you´ll be going to Hogwarts too and all. You wouldn´t believe it, but when I was small like you and received my letter I was asking myself the very same question."

As far as Albus could remember James hadn´t been very upset about his acceptance at the wizarding school, seeing that he had shouted "I WILL BE GOING TO HOGWARTS!" every morning and every night and had been wearing his school uniform (he had stolen a tie from his father in lack of a real one - to Harry's shock he had also added golden stripes to the red fabric) for months. Some of his scepticism must have been showing on his face, because James hastily amended:

"Well, maybe not exactly the same question, but I was really curious obviously, who wouldn´t be?"

"So?"

"So I asked uncle George for a bit of advice and he gave me this!"

He took what seemed to be a simple, black ball from the pocket of his pyjamas.

Albus thought it very odd to ask uncle George for serious advice about Hogwarts, but he was nonetheless impressed by this sudden emergence of a mysterious object.

"What is it?"

"This, my young friend, is what you call a _know-it-all_," James proclaimed with great pathos.

"A _know-it-all_? Isn´t that what uncle Ron calls aunt Hermione all the time?"

"No, no, silly, this is something completely different! I mean you just need to ask a question, shake it, like this," he gave the little ball a violent shake, "and it will tell you everything you want to know!"

"Prove it," Albus demanded at once. This was James, after all.

"Always the tone of distrust."

James shook his head in disappointment.

"Well, pay attention, then. Hem hem." He cleared his throat artificially and waited a few moments before he put his question - for dramatic effect as Albus supposed.

"Was I, James Sirius Potter, sorted into the most noble house of Gryffindor?"

After another violent shake he shoved the answer under Albus' nose.

**ABSOLUTELY** blinked at him in big, bright letters.

"See? And before you ask, here goes another, just to make sure, eh? Let´s see...will Lily be going to Hogwarts this year?"

**NO WAY**

"Whooooaaa," was all Albus could mouth. Once again, if he hadn't spent the whole day worrying and hadn´t been so eager and desperate he would have seen the treacherous grin on his helper´s face. But, alas, he was too busy being in awe of the little ball, which seemed to be the solution to all of his problems.

"Don´t mention it," James told him with a patronising air. And then he quickly ran away, his fists stuffed into his mouth.

Having returned to the serenity of his room, Albus still stared at the know-it-all in his hands before he found the courage to ask his question. He took a deep breath and whispered:

"Will I be sorted into Slytherin?"

Quickly shaking the ball with his eyes closed, he didn´t dare to open them for a while. After a while, when he started to feel stupid, he finally squinted at the bright letters, telling him his future.

**YOU BET**

"NOOOOoooooo!" He groaned, but the answer stayed the same. With a cry of frustration he threw the know-it-all against the wall, turned off the light and curled himself up on his bed. Teeth brushing completely forgotten, he soon fell asleep sniffing and sighing, holding on to his favourite stuffed toy.

It was a snake.


End file.
